new studies in european history

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1 THE COSSACK MYTH In the years following the Napoleonic Wars, a mysterious manuscript began to circulate among the dissatisfied noble elite of the Russian Empire. Entitled The History of the Rus, it became one of the most influential historical texts of the modern era. Attributed to an eighteenth-century Orthodox archbishop, it described the heroic struggles of the Ukrainian Cossacks. Alexander Pushkin read the book as a manifestation of Russian national spirit, but Taras Shevchenko interpreted it as a quest for Ukrainian national liberation, and it would inspire thousands of Ukrainians to fight for the freedom of their homeland. tells the fascinating story of the text s discovery and dissemination, unravelling the mystery of its authorship and tracing its subsequent impact on Russian and Ukrainian historical and literary imagination. In so doing, he brilliantly illuminates the relationship between history, myth, empire, and nationhood, from Napoleonic times to the fall of the Soviet Union. serhii plokhy is the Mykhailo Hrushevsky Professor of Ukrainian History at Harvard University. His previous publications include Ukraine and Russia: Representations of the Past (2008) andthe Origins of the Slavic Nations: Premodern Identities in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus (2006).

2 new studies in european history Edited by PETER BALDWIN, University of California, Los Angeles CHRISTOPHER CLARK, University of Cambridge JAMES B. COLLINS, Georgetown University MIA RODRÍGUEZ- SALGADO, London School of Economics and Political Science LYNDAL ROPER, University of Oxford TIMOTHY SNYDER, Yale University The aim of this series in early modern and modern European history is to publish outstanding works of research, addressed to important themes across a wide geographical range, from southern and central Europe, to Scandinavia and Russia, from the time of the Renaissance to the Second World War. As it develops, the series will comprise focused works of wide contextual range and intellectual ambition. A full list of titles published in the series can be found at : /newstudiesineuropeanhistory

3 THE COSSACK MYTH History and Nationhood in the Age of Empires SERHII PLOKHY

4 cambridge university press Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo, Delhi, Mexico City Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge cb2 8ru, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York Information on this title: / # 2012 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2012 Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Plokhy, Serhii, 1957 The Cossack myth : history and nationhood in the age of empires /. pages cm. (New studies in European history) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN (Hardback) 1. Ukraine Historiography. 2. Istoriia Rusov. 3. Istoriia Rusov Authorship. 4. Ukraine History Sources. 5. Cossacks Ukraine History Sources. 6. Cossacks Ukraine Folklore. 7. Nationalism Ukraine History. 8. Ukraine Relations Russia. 9. Russia Relations Ukraine. 10. Imperialism History. I. Title. DK P dc isbn Hardback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

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7 Contents List of figures List of maps Note on transliteration and dates page ix x xi Introduction 1 part i the mystery 1 A call for freedom 15 2 The Cossack annals 28 3 The birth of the myth 47 part ii on a cold trail 4 A noble heart 69 5 The Cossack prince 88 6 The Kyiv manuscript 108 part iii pieces of a puzzle 7 A matter of time Uncovering the motive How did he do it? The Cossack treasure 188 vii

8 viii part iv unusual suspects Contents 11 People and places The Cossack aristocrats The liberated gentry A history teacher 261 part v a family circle 15 A missing name A son-in-law The rivals 328 Epilogue 351 Appendix: Cossack family networks 369 Acknowledgments 371 Index 374

9 Figures Between pages 176 and The History of the Rus, c (Andrei Sheptytsky National Museum, Manuscript Division, no. 563.) 2 A Chronicle of Little Russia, (Volodymyr Vernadsky Library of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (Kyiv), Manuscript Institute, I, no ) 3 Aleksandr von Brigen. From A. F. Brigen, Istoricheskie sochineniia (Irkutsk, 1986). 4 Mykhailo Myklashevsky. From Chernigovskie gubernskie vedomosti, no. 666 (1895). 5 Myklashevsky mansion in Ponurivka at the turn of the twentieth century (Photo Collection of Chernihiv State Archives). 6 Archbishop Heorhii Konysky (unknown artist, Nizhyn Eparchy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church). 7 Hryhorii Poletyka as the author of the History of the Rus. From Narodzheni Ukraïnoiu. Memorial nyi al manakh u dvokh tomakh (Kyiv, 2002), vol. ii. 8 Vasyl Poletyka. From Kievskaia starina, no. 1 (1893). 9 Oleksandr Bezborodko. By Dmytro Levytsky. From Russkaia Zhivopis v XVIII veke, vol. i: D. G. Levitskii (St. Petersburg, 1902). 10 Ivan Hudovych. From Chernigovskie gubernskie vedomosti, no. 592 (1895). 11 Mykola Borozdna. From Chernigovskie gubernskie vedomosti, no. 164 (1894). 12 Stepan Shyrai. From Chernigovskie gubernskie vedomosti, no. 632 (1895). 13 Nikolai Repnin. From V. V. Ruban, Ukraïns kyi portretnyi zhyvopys pershoï polovyny XIX stolittia (Kyiv, 1984). ix

10 Maps 1 The Hetmanate and surrounding territories in the 1750s. From Zenon E. Kohut, Russian Centralism and Ukrainian Autonomy: Imperial Absorption of the Hetmanate, 1760s 1830s (Cambridge, Mass., 1988), p. xiv. page xii 2 The Starodub regiment in the 1750s. xiii 3 Imperial provinces: the Hetmanate as part of imperial Russia, From Kohut, Russian Centralism, p. xv. xiv 4 Modern Ukraine. From Encyclopedia of Ukraine, ed. Volodomyr Kubijovyč and Danylo Husar Struk, vol. v (Toronto, 1993), p xv x

11 Note on transliteration and dates In the text of this book, a simplified Library of Congress system is used to transliterate Ukrainian and Russian personal names and toponyms. The same system is applied in non-bibliographic references to persons and places in the footnotes. In bibliographic references, where the reader must be able to reconstruct Cyrillic spelling precisely from its Latin-alphabet transliteration, the full Library of Congress system (ligatures and breves omitted) is used. Toponyms are transliterated from the language of the country in which they are now located, with the notable exception of the Starodub region of the Russian Federation, which in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries constituted part of the Ukrainian Hetmanate. In this particular case, both Ukrainian and Russian spellings are given on first mention. Pre-1918 dates in this book are given according to the Julian calendar, which in the nineteenth century lagged behind the Gregorian calendar by twelve days. xi

12 The Hetmanate and surrounding territories in the 1750s The Hetmanate Desna River RUSSIAN Dnieper River Starodub Desna River EMPIRE POLISH- Dnieper River Chernihiv Nizhyn LITHUANIAN Kyiv COMMONWEALTH Pryluky Pereiaslav Lubny Hadiach Myrhorod COSSACKS OF Kharkiv SLOBODA UKRAINE Poltava Myrhorod Izium NOVO-SERBIA SLAVIANO-SERBIA ZAPOROZHIAN COSSACKS Zaporozhian Sich TATARS Sea of Azov O T T O M A N E M P I R E Bahçesaray B l a c k S e a km miles Map 1 The Hetmanate and surrounding territories in the 1750s.

13 Starodub Regiment in the 1750s Surazh Lialychi Mhlyn Pochep POLISH- LITHUANIAN COMMONWEALTH Novozybkiv Klimova Sloboda Klintsy Turosna Velyka Topal Brakhliv Piatovsk Pantusiv Medvediv Starodub Solova Ponurivka Semenivka Hryniv Pohar Hremiach RUSSIAN EMPIRE Horsk Sheptaky Novhorod-Siverskyi The Hetmanate km miles Map 2 The Starodub regiment in the 1750s.

14 The Hetmanate as part of imperial Russia, 1809 MOSCOW The Hetmanate MINSK Dnieper MAHILIOŬ Desna KALUGA Orel OREL TULA VOLHYNIA Zhytomyr PODILIA Chernihiv CHERNIHIV Kyiv POLTAVA KYIV Poltava Kursk KURSK Kharkiv KHARKIV Voronezh VORONEZH B E S S A R A B I A KHERSON Katerynoslav KATERYNOSLAV Odesa Kherson T A U R I D A Sea of Azov Simferopol CRIMEA Bahçesaray CAUCASUS B l a c k S e a km miles Map 3 Imperial provinces: the Hetmanate as part of imperial Russia, 1809.

15 P O L A N D CZECHOSLOVAKIA Debrecen HUNGARY Lublin Peremyshl/ Przemyśl Kholm/ Chełm Lviv Uzhhorod 1945 Brest Pinsk Lutsk 1939 Drohobych Ternopil Chernivtsi 1940 ROMANIA Kovel Vistula Rivne Khmelnytskyi Kamianets- Podilskyi Bălţi Iaşi BELARUSIAN SSR Zhytomyr Chişinău Korosten 1940 Mazyr Bila Tserkva Kyiv Poltava Cherkasy UKRAINIAN SSR Vinnytsia Kremenchuk MOLDAVIAN SSR Galaţi Izmail Pervomaiske Uman Kirovohrad Mykolaiv Odesa Homel Chernihiv Nizhyn Konotop Sumy Romny Lubny Horlivka Dniprodzerzhynsk Dnipropetrovsk Kryvyi Rih Kherson Sevastopol B l a c k S e a Novhorod- Siverskyi Nykopil Melitopol Nova Kakhovka 1954 Kharkiv Simferopol Kursk Voronezh Sloviansk Kramatorsk Zaporizhia RUSSIAN SFSR Desna Belgorod Mariupol (Zhdanov) Berdiansk Sea of Azov Valuiki Dnieper Donets Ukrainian SSR in Incorporation of lands into the Ukrainian SSR 1939 Northern Bukovyna, northern Bessarabia and southern Bessarabia 1940 Transcarpathia 1945 Crimea 1954 Contemporary boundary of Ukraine International boundary Administrative center Lysychansk Stakhanov (Kadiivka) Makiivka Donetsk Taganrog Eisk km miles Primorsko- Akhtarsk Krasnodar Novorossiisk Luhansk (Voroshylovhrad) Dniester Don Rostov Dnieper Kuban Maikop Map 4 Modern Ukraine.